gesture

«gesture» in Mova's school dictionary: A movement of your hand, head or body that shows a… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a gesture, gestures); verb (gesture, gestures, gestured, gesturing)

meaning for a pupil

1) A movement of your hand, head or body that shows a meaning, like waving, nodding or pointing. tree →

2) Something you do to show a feeling, especially kindness: «a kind gesture». tree →

3) (verb) To move your hand or head to show something: «She gestured to the door». tree →

sense in the lessons

In lessons on communication: gestures are body language; some gestures (like a thumbs up) mean different things in different countries, so be careful. In stories they tell the reader what a character feels without words. Phrases: «a kind/nice gesture», «a friendly gesture», «hand gestures», «gesture towards/to».

examples

• She waved goodbye – a friendly gesture. tree →
• Nodding is a gesture that means "yes" in many countries. tree →
• Bringing flowers to the new neighbour was a kind gesture. tree →
• The teacher gestured to us to sit down. tree →
• He made a rude gesture and got into trouble. tree →
• Sign language uses many gestures. tree →
• Some gestures mean something different in other countries. tree →
• With a hasty gesture he tried to hide it, but he was too late. tree →

note

Countable. Verb: gestured, gesturing (drop e). Spelling: «-ture» like picture. Do not confuse with «jester» (a clown at a royal court).

In the corpora

• With a classmate who speaks little English, you speak slowly, use gestures and pictures, and are patient.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «gesture» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.